Kate Lynch, Artistic Director of the Highlights Rural Touring Scheme based in Brough, reports on an eye-opening time of art, performance and connection in the far north of Europe.
In 2025, I was invited to join the delegate programme at Riddu Riđđu Festival, an annual indigenous festival in the Norwegian part of Sápmi (Sámi indigenous territory).
Riddu Riđđu means ‘little storm by the coast’ and the festival was first held in 1991, organised by Sámi youth with the objective of reclaiming their identity. It is now Europe’s largest indigenous festival and a celebration of Sámi culture, welcoming visitors from across the world. The Sámi are the only recognised indigenous people in Europe, with roots going back thousands of years. Traditionally, many Sámi people are reindeer herders, with fishing and hunting integral to the community – a reflection of their surroundings – and they have their own language, culture and lifestyle.
I came home inspired by the landscape, the community and the cultural threads we share as northerners and wondering what I could do next. This July, thanks to support from Four Nations International Funding, I returned to the festival accompanied by Emyr Bell, Creative Director of North East Arts Touring (Aberdeen, Scotland), Lucy Beth, a performer and storyteller from Aberdeenshire and Kit Haigh, a sound artist and photographer working in Gilsland, on the Cumbria/Northumberland border.
Our aim was to make connections, initiate conversations and begin a collaborative project with artists from England, Scotland and the Sámi Community.
The festival was eye-opening for us all.
It ranged from main stage music to meditative soundscapes in a ‘lavvu’ (tent), short film programmes to seminars discussing rights for the Sámi people. We took part in ‘duodji’ (traditional craft) workshops. We visited the house of a Sámi man and his mother, built using materials he received from the authorities after his home, like others in his village, had been burnt down in 1944 by retreating Nazi soldiers. We spent time with artists Joar Nango and Geir Tore Holm in collaboration with ‘duojár’ (traditional craftsman), Ove Stødle, learning about their long-term project to create a gathering space on the festival site around an old Mercedes Sprinter van.
Away from the art, we were able to spend time with outgoing Festival Director’ Sajje Solbakk and incoming Festival Director, Erle Bårdsdatter Sæther, as well as Kirsti Lervoll, Director of Nanu, Sami Arts International.
Surrounded by breathtaking mountain landscapes and under the midnight sun, we spent three days immersed in what seems a very different community to our own. This is a community which has its roots in traditions that can feel a long way from our life in the UK, and yet it’s right at the forefront of modern-day challenges, with climate change and geo-politics threatening its very existence. And the strength of community really reminded me of the work we do in rural communities across the north of England.
Back in the UK, we’re looking ahead to what comes next. During the next twelve months, we will be inviting Sámi artists to join artists from the north of England and the north of Scotland to join a gathering that will explore art in response to landscape, climate and northern-ness. We’re calling it ‘A Northern Storm’ and the rumblings have already started …
